Canada’s Industry Minister Tony Clement has announced via Twitter that the Harper government will repeal the CRTC’s decision if the commission does not rescind it itself. He has announced it after fews days when Canadian Radio-Telecommunications Commission (CTRC) sanctioned “Usage-Based Billing” (also called metered Internet) for Bell.
Usage-based billing arguably destroys any competitive advantage because it forces third party Internet access providers, who lease lines from ISPs such as Bell, to cap their bandwidth.
Paying the whopping $2 per GB overage fees proposed under the usage-based billing plan, it would be more cheaper for users who exceed Canada’s 25 GB per month data cap to buy an SSD, fill it up with bits, and ship it across O Canada as illustrated in infographic form by Reddit user CGSColin.
Industry Minister Clement:
“True. CRTC must go back to drawing boardRT @RosieBarton is it true you will overturn internet decision if crtc does not back down?”
A Conservative government official told the Toronto Star, “The CRTC should be under no illusion — the Prime Minister and minister of Industry will reverse this decision unless the CRTC does it itself … If they don’t reconsider we will reverse their decision.” by Corroborating Clement’s tweet.
“While the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is an independent agency, its decision can be overturned by cabinet. The Star was told that could happen as early as next week.”
When the Internauts of Canada are not out of the woods quite yet, there is an exceptional chance that they will be back in no time to downloading by the bucketful.
